Challenger - Domination
This GOTM was very straightforward. I constantly felt like I was being steered by the map designer, with very little room left to improvise.
The Logic
My starting moves were exactly the same as Jesusin's, for exactly the same reasons. Allow me to quote from Jesusin's spoiler:
jesusin said:
I won't settle in place. A cow and a silk? That's not enough for a capital. I will move and look the surroundings, then choose the perfect place to settle. The worst thing that could happen is that there are dozen of resources hidden and then the initial spot is the best place to settle; in that case I would only lose 1 or 2 turns to go back. But imagine my desperation if I were to save those 1-2 turns and then find out that I have not settled in the best place and I have missed a gold or something!
Warrior NE. Settler NE. See the gold. Should I plan to get a CS slingshot? I consider settling here, I have not lost a turn yet. If I do, I will have 3 food from the cow but working the gold will consume 2 of them, leaving me with a capital that grows 1fpt. Not nearly enough. This is not a good place to settle. Let's keep on moving. Settler E. See rice.
Time played so far: 10 minutes.
Turn 2:
War NE. I am on a blue circle. Should I settle here? Or should I move 1S and settle there? By moving S I would save a forest and I would trade a prairy for a plains. But by staying I am on a blue circle. Do I trust the AI settling pattern? Of course I don't. Then forget the blue thing and use your brains. I move 1S and settle (2E of the initial position). Rice, gold, cow, silk, dyes all in the FC. Not bad for a single turn invested.
The blue circle happened to prefer a second silk to a dyes and didn't take into account the wood, bah!
Time played so far: 50 minutes.
...except that I spent about 2 minutes instead.
The entire line is pretty much forced, which explains why so many of the stronger players chose it. The only option is whether to settle on the silk or not. I settled on the plains 1N of the silk because it saved a forest, good for 1 extra skirmisher or chariot.
The Plan
OK, what about strategy?
I was planning to swamp the opponents with my skirmishers as early as possible, before they could develop any advanced units, and add their cities to my production base. This is the only way to play at the harder difficulty levels. There, the AIs are much better than you at producing things (or, rather, they cheat by getting large percentage bonuses to their production). On the other hand, you are much better than the AIs at warfare. So you should always look to combine your the strengths by letting the AIs build stuff, then capturing it.
This was especially true for my Challenger game. I knew I had to be very aggressive if I was to recoup the handicap. So the early rush was a forced decision.
I researched Hunting first, a prerequisite to Archery. It would take almost twice as long if I were to research Mining-Bronze Working.
Skirmishers are not too shabby as attack units. Their cost-to-power ratio is pretty good, 25 hammers for 4 strength, same the chariot's. Skirmishers cannot become City Raiders, but they can get Cover, unlike chariots. And Skirmishers do not need resources to build. Connecting Bronze can well require a second city, which does not sit well with the idea of a very early rush.
What did I build first? A worker. Why not a warrior? (Remember: I have zero units at this point.)
You might need the warrior to do two things. One, a super early worker steal. But not in this Emperor game. The AIs get a couple of archers right from the start and these archers will come a-knockin to your capital. They won't accept peace unless you score some kind of war success - not very likely with your warrior vs their archers. Or - here's a trick - unless you research Bronze Working. It causes a big surge in your power graph. The AI's army strength now compares unfavorably with yours, making them offer peace (even though you did not build any new units!).
But this was not an option, because I was forced down the Hunting-Archery route, and Bronze Working would not be forthcoming for a long time.
Two - scouting. You need to find good spots for your 2nd and further cities. In this game, the site of the capital was exceptionally rich, with multiple green hills (and enough food to work them) and many forests. I knew right away that I would not need to settle another city. The capital, all by itself, would produce the units to conquer the continent. With chopping, it would be pumping out a unit every turn for a long time. Even without chopping, its production would peak at 16 hammers per turn (13 before horses) - enough for a chariot or skirmisher every 2 turns.
You also scout for targets. You need to know where the enemy cities are, so you can direct your rushing units there. But, on a small map, especially a continents small map as opposed to pangaea, you can't take two steps in any direction without stumbling upon some other civ. This was quickly proven true as 3 rivals located me with their scouts in the first 5 turns or so.
The Luck
As you see, there was no other choice other than the worker as the first build. But my first tech is Archery, and I lack any worker techs (Challenger save). I need at least one, or the worker will sit idle. I see cows and I see rice.
Which one did I pick?
Animal Husbandry. It leads directly to Writing, an important tech for Oracle slingshots. The other path is through Agriculture and the useless Pottery. You see, I am going to pump out attack units non-stop, so my economy probably won't be in a great shape, but I also want the Oracle. So I am forced to go by the most direct path, ignoring all techs that are not absolutely required. Techs that would be nice to have, but aren't vital, are left for later. Actually, I ended up never researching Agriculture and Pottery in this game. Oh well, rice is the worst of all the Agri resources, too.
OK, Archery is in, AH research starts, the worker goes to pasture the cows (food and hammers - perfect for the early attack!), and guess what? I see Horses in the fat cross.
Chariots rule normal-speed small forested maps, where 1 chop = 1 chariot and they can get across the continent in a couple of turns. The moment the horses appeared, I started feeling quite good about my chances.
Scrap Archery, start the Wheel, set production in the city to Barracks. Then Mining to get those green hills going, and Bronze Working for the forests. After the barracks, the city started building nothing but chariots.
The Gamble
One major strategic decision remained. Do I need Astronomy for Domination? Is the continent large enough? Should I choose 'Pangaea Conquest' mode - no cottages, no great people, no tech trading, no buildings in cities, running at negative cash, paying the upkeep with plundered gold? Or should I take out maybe 1 neighbor civ, and get fancy with Alphabet, forges, libraries and courthouses? This decision came up much earlier than I could map out the continent - or even a meaningful portion of it. So, it was simply a big gamble. Later, when I could count the tiles and jump for joy, I was already 50 turns past the point of no return.
Two factors made me decide in favor of Pangaea Conquest. First, I knew from the first turns that 3 of the 4 rivals were on this continent. So, hopefully, the other continent was much smaller (though probably not 5 times smaller).
Second, I knew I got lucky with that early knowledge of the horses, while Contenders who started with Mining probably pursued Copper. Even if there was Copper, too, in the fat cross chariots are superior to axemen on this kind of map. So I had to push the advantage. Playing Challenger means you have to take a pretty big gamble somewhere, to come up from behind. By playng it safely, along the lines of conventional wisdom, you are simply going to stay behind. Sometimes you must play crazy.
The Pounce
Finally, some operational and tactical things. America was the closest, the natural first victim, so I parked my first chariots on the hills in between, to keep an eye on the Washington City. I saw Roos move a settler out with archer escort, at which point I declared war and converted the settler to a worker for me. Then the chariots pounced the city, with only 1 archer in garrison at the moment - the others were out escorting. Another chariot - these things are fast! - captured a 2nd worker, who was running for cover but couldn't make it. The 2 new workers were sent to forests near the capital, and the 1-chariot-per-turn production spree began.
Washington City was a disappointment though - nothing better than a banana in the 1st ring. In the 2nd ring, there was rice (already farmed) and two hills - but these would not be accessible for a long time. Even so, it wasn't quite the resource bonanza you expect from an AI capital.
Roosevelt had also built New York up north by the pigs and stone. I took it next, I wanted the stone to accelerate Stonehenge. This worked out all right, the capital built the 'Henge, but not before producing a humongous stack of chariots that went to Madrid. Isabella's capital-on-a-hill and the Buddhist holy city, I knew it had to be put down before the increased archer garrison and cultural defense made it impregnable. 20+ chariots went there and took Madrid out. Afterwards it was just mopping-up - Montezuma failed to put up a fight - while the captured cities started building settlers.
The Laugh
I also built the Oracle in the capital, aided by forest chops, to take Code of Laws. I had turned research off after reaching CoL prerequisites Writing and Priesthood, and was already running at large deficit. I calculated that I needed about 10 settlers to cover all the tiles on the continent. The logistics usually get messy in this part of the game, but I managed to synchronize all the settlers to their destinations pretty well. 2 turns later, I should win: 10 culture is required to expand the borders, of which an artist (with Caste System) provides +4 and the free obelisk from Stonehenge gives +1 more.
I hit End Turn, I hit End Turn...
Erkon said:
Then I captured the final cities of Washington and Isa, settled a lot of settler to fill our the gaps. At this time, I had Code of Laws, which enabled quick border expansion. Then I noticed I didn't have enough population
Wahaha! I hear you brother Erkon!
I still remember distinctly the feeling of utter horror. Not a single time during the game had I bothered to check the demographics screen about the pop limit. I am so used to getting over
that limit automatically!
Fortunately, I was only 1 pop short, and it only cost me 1 turn before one of the large cities grew.
End result Domination XXX BC.
. Also pulled of a CS slingshot in 1200 BC. 
).
dV
I have inserted turn numbers from my hand notes, but not everything under a number happend that turn.
. Win-win, yes? But apparently I am wrong, since you beat me 
